Traditional architecture

The Echallod Bridge is a stone pedestrian bridge, one of the most picturesque in the Aosta Valley region.

Restored several times over the centuries, it connects the hamlets of upper and lower Echallod to the other villages of the municipality of Arnad, located on the left bank of the Dora Baltea river.

The symmetrical humpback structure rests on three arches supported by sturdy buttresses. On the right shoulder there is a small chapel to protect travellers.
You cross this bridge when you walk along the Cammino Balteo hiking itinerary which here overlaps the route of the Via Francigena.

The village includes the Ohta house-fort, an interesting manor compound built around a significantly large Late Medieval tower with walls over two metres thick and an entrance about 8 metres off the ground. In the fourteenth century, the village was most probably enclosed by a curtain wall or by the connecting surrounding houses. In fact, the men of Arnad were granted concessions in 1321 by Amedeo di Vallaise including the lord’s right to order improvements to the village walls. In addition to some houses that belonged to local lords, which still present “noble” traits, there are many homes owned by the aristocracy, notaries and chamberlains which preserve valuable architectural details such as ample parlours, large fireplaces and graceful “viret or tornette”.

The hamlet of Leverogne has an interesting urban development of its medieval village, with different buildings worth seeing.Of particular historic interest are the frescoes dating back to 1497, recently restored, that represent the seven Works of Mercy on the outside walls of what once was a hospice for wayfarers.Climbing the path of the Dora di Valgrisenche, you can still see the remains of a Roman bridge.

Challant House
Built towards the end of the fifteenth century, it is located in the Medieval village of Bard. The house was home to Count Filiberto di Challand, lord of Bard between 1487 and 1517. It features lancet windows and other pointed windows.

Nicole House
Partially built over the western gate to the Bard village, the building facade preserves signs of bullets shot during the assault on the Bard fortress by Napoleon’s army in May 1800. The building creates a tower whose top is adorned by the chapel’s quatrefoil window. The chapel was frescoed by painter Giovanni Antonio di Biella.

Valperga House
Dating back to the sixteenth century, this house has interesting pointed windows and the remains of pictorial decorations. A twin lancet window and the remains of frescoes that depict ancient coats of arms, including that of the Valperga family, are found at the centre.

The water of the hamlet of Ruvère, that rises along the banks of the Evançon at the entrance to the Chasten valley, was used to operate the mills for the grinding of grains and for the making of walnut oil.
A completely renovated windmill reminds us of this activity. During the summer months tours of the windmill are available and exhibits are also held (for more information on the availabilities of the exhibits it is necessary to send a request to the municipal offices).

In the hamlet of Verval we can find two Medieval bridges, otherwise known as the Roman bridges that are worth visiting. They are both “humpback” bridges. They had a considerable impact on the rural economy because they granted passage to men and animals, linking up the envers with the adret (in other words, the valley with the other side).

The rural buildings are made of local material (stone and wood) and faithfully reproduce the models popular in other lower valley towns. The rural homes are either “separated” (several separate buildings intended for different uses) or “concentrated” in a single building which includes the home, “lo pejo”, the stables, “l’htabio”, and the hay loft, “lo payi”. You can also find: “grisse”, small stone buildings used to dry chestnuts, “reucard” sheaf granary made of squared larch tree trunks and “lo dzerbi” sheaf store open on three sides overlooking the threshing barn.

“Rascard” are buildings typical to the Val d’Ayas. They are made of squared and stripped pine, fir and larch logs, notched together at the corners. These buildings were once exclusively used to store cereal and were designed to prevent humidity from forming and rodents from entering. The strategies adopted to solve these problems varied according to the type. In the most widespread and popular model, the rascard is supported by a series of “mushrooms”, wood columns about 70 cm long, often crown by a “losa” disk (flat stone, normally used for roofing). In other cases, like in the villages of Extrepiéraz or Mascognaz, harvests were protected by place a series of “lose” around the “rascard”, protruding beyond the base with a 40 centimetre high layer of fine plaster.
“Concentrated” rascard are buildings at least three stories high with two-story brick bases. The stables and cellar were on the ground floor. The middle floor was used as the house, clearly divided in two rooms, the “majòn” and the “péillo”, mainly used in the summer due to the high upward heat dispersion since the third floor of the rascard was suspended on the “mushrooms”. To fight off the cold, the family moved to the “gabenet”, a small area in the stable used as living quarters. The living quarters was usually in the brightest part, next to the door and near windows, and was separated from the stables by a low plank wall. Wood planks were also used to line walls and the floor. An iron cook stove, buckets of water in a corner, a folding table to save space, a bench and chest resting on the beds against the walls, gas lamps and a few shelves furnished the “gabenet” where the family lived for a few months during the year, preferring the animals’ company to the cold.
There are beautiful examples of rascard in the following villages: Frantse, Cunéaz, St. Jacques, Blanchard, Pilaz, Antagnod , Lignod, Mascognaz, Péio, Pra-Sec, Magnechoulaz, Mandrou in the municipality of Ayas; Extrepiéraz, Pasquier and Graines in the municipality of Brusson; Isollaz in the municipality of Challand St. Victor.

An original architecture, linked to the impervious land

In a rocky and sloping valley like Champorcher, crossing the river banks was not an easy task. Placing the bridge foundations on top of rocky gulfs, over turbulent waters, the master builders of the XVII and XVIII centuries created masterpieces, that still today stand and resist the impressive floods.

Only 6 km from the central vallley, at the chieftown of Pontboset, a path joins different winding mule-back bridges on the Rathus river; these bridges lead to the sunny hillside where there are numerous abandoned villages.

These houses, attached to the slopes, are characterized by their “soulei”, high haylofts closed by vertical walls bound by pillars on the corners. Small two-storey stone homes, built beside each other, were used as drying rooms for chestnuts and remind us that, in 1000 meters in altitude, these populations existed thanks to this nutritious fruit.

Higher up the culture of grains takes on heroic aspects. The rye fields of long ago, overhanging one on top of the other, thanks to the layout of the hillside, characterize this landscape and were entirely built by man.
In the villages, like Outre l’Eve, numerous grain barns show the expert skills of the carpenters of this mountain valley, which is worth discovering.
The ethnographic hemp museum at Chardonney was built under an old XVIII century barn, furnishing an inhabited stable, much like the one of Champorcher in the winter. The inhabitants were specialized in the weaving of hemp and this precious material was carried from all over Valle d’Aosta. It was a primary material in the daily lives of the people and they used it to make underwear, drapes and sheets.

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The medieval villages of Etroubles and Saint-Rhemy are joined together on the Roman road that from the city of Aosta climbs up the mountainside of the Pennine Alps (Alpis Poenina), towards the Valais and northern Europe.

Like a “picket” on the path, the parish church’s belltower dominates these characteristic architectural complexes, village roads built following a main circulation axis, at the convergence of 2 rivers and in correspondence to the bridges.The secondary roads or axis reached the mills and forges.
The village homes show their beautiful facades which open onto great entrances, on the main road; the main doorways lead towards internal courtyards or towards long hallways, with indoor stairways that take to all the rooms of the great stone house that once had stables and haylofts.The date of construction and initials of the great builders are engraved on the architraves or forged onto wrought-iron gates.

In the past, these groups of homes had a so-called franchise that attributed the function of “marronniers” to the inhabitants (guides for the Great St. Bernard pass, in winter and in the summer) and were used as hospices, boundary walls, guarded by night watchmen and closed during the nights.

The Via Francigena, up until the Middle Ages the only connecting road between Italy and England, passes through Saint-Rhémy and Étroubles. In fact, it is the main road of these villages and was travelled on foot, horseback or mule in order to reach Rome from Gran San Bernardo Hill.

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